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Consumer guide Which? has unveiled its ranking of the UK’s best and worst seaside towns for 2026. It’s the guide’s biggest survey yet, with responses from thousands of panel members about 135 villages, cities and towns across the country.
Each place was given a star rating out of five in 11 categories including average hotel price, beach, seafront/pier, food and drink, tourist attractions, scenery, shopping, ‘peace and quiet’, parking and value for money. They were then given an overall ‘destination score’.
Bamburgh in Northumberland was crowned the best coastal destination of all, but according to Which? the worst seaside town in the UK is Bognor Regis. The West Sussex town received a measly destination score of 41 percent, with one out of five stars in every category besides parking and ‘peace and quiet’, in which it earned two stars.
This is the second year in a row that Bognor Regis has come bottom of the pile. But residents who spoke to the Guardian when it was dubbed the worst last year dismissed the ranking as ‘snobbery’. While it may not be perfect, Bognor Regis does have everything a good seaside resort should have, and is absolutely worth exploring.
There’s the clean pebble Pagham Beach, welcoming locals and a pier with a bar and arcade that dates back to 1865. There’s the grand Grade II-listed Picturedrome cinema where all tickets cost £5.75 and the beautiful 22 acre Hotham Park, with Alice in Wonderland statues, a nature enclosure and a boating lake, that’s ideal for a peaceful Sunday stroll. Pinks Parlour is ice-cream parlour with flavours such as caramel popcorn, beetroot sorbet, millionaire shortbread and pina colada alongside all the classics while Yanni’s is a top-rated chippy looking directly over the shoreline.
The town also has a surprising amount of historical and cultural significance to boast about. In 1929, it was where King George V resided while he recovered from a serious lung illness. After he returned to full health, the King granted the town the royal suffix ‘Regis’ and it’s been officially known as Bognor Regis ever since.
It was also where James Joyce began writing Finnegans Wake in 1923, where Billy Butlin (of Butlin’s fame) opened an amusement park in 1931 and where pre-Raphaelite poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti worked in a studio for a while. If you walk 25 minutes along the seafront, you’ll get to William Blake’s cottage in Felpham where he penned the verses for his best known work, ‘Jerusalem’. Today, the Cure frontman Robert Smith is known to live on Bognor’s outskirts.
As we speak, Bognor Regis is undergoing a huge £40 million transformation. Its former Edwardian Theatre Royal is becoming the Alexandra Arts Centre, set to open in 2027 with a 386-seat auditorium and sky bar, and there’s a new marine-themed visitor centre planned too. This week, the town’s local MP launched a ‘29 for 29’ campaign to gather responses from locals on how it can be improved before its centenary in 2029. Here’s hoping that soon, Bognor Regis will finally rise up the ranks.
🏖️ Check out Time Out’s own list of the greatest seaside towns in the UK.
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